Meaford Community School has earned an honourable mention for their efforts in a province-wide waste reduction initiative that challenged students to reduce the amount of waste in their lunches.

“Congratulations on your impressive waste reduction efforts during the Waste-Free Lunch Challenge. I hope that the challenge inspired your school to continue to reduce your waste. We are pleased to let you know that Meaford Community School has won an Honourable Mention of $100 for your school’s environmental projects,” wrote Catherine Leighton of the Recycling Council of Ontario to MCS teacher Tracy McNally.

As part of Waste Reduction Week in Canada, elementary schoolchildren across the province committed to reducing, reusing, and recycling for lunch and made a significant contribution to Ontario’s waste diversion efforts.

Sponsored by the Carton Council of Canada, the annual Waste-Free Lunch Challenge helps schools decrease the amount of garbage they generate, and educates students, teachers, and parents about smart consumption and waste reduction. In 2013, approximately 700 classrooms or schools from 56 school boards took an active role in waste minimization by utilizing reusable, refillable, and recyclable containers for lunch.

In doing so, participating schools kept nearly 16,000 kg of lunch material from entering landfill–equivalent to 35 grand pianos—over the course of a week. Schools sorted, weighed, and recorded their lunchtime waste generation before Waste Reduction Week to establish a baseline, and then again during Waste Reduction Week to measure the difference.

The average elementary school student’s lunch generates 30 kilograms of waste per school year. For the entire week, M.C.S. students were committed to bringing a waste-free lunch (lunches contain reusable, refillable and recyclable containers). During the challenge, the school sorted, weighed and record edtheir lunchtime waste generation.

“These students have proven themselves to be the next generation of environmental stewards’ says Jo-Anne St. Godard, Executive Director, Recycling Council of Ontario. “They have also demonstrated that making conscious and simple changes to everyday activities, like packing a waste-free lunch, will help solve future waste problems.”

“Initiatives like these demonstrate the impact individuals can have when they translate ideas into action,” says Elisabeth Comere, Vice President Government Affairs, the Carton Council of Canada. “Every student who took part in the Waste-Free Lunch Challenge should be proud of their remarkable actions and efforts to minimize waste by reducing, reusing and recycling.”